Adonis Diaries

Archive for January 2020

Tidbits #4

“The power of private-sector banks (or financial institutions) lending to determine the pace of money creation, and therefore economic growth.”⠀Mariana Mazzucato

Mental health in crisis situations shouldn’t be an afterthought. People affected by war and conflict may be resilient, but they still need support.⠀

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon

Front Line Defenders (FLD) found 300 human rights activists were killed  in 2019 and that 40% of those killed worked on issues of land rights, indigenous people’s rights and environmental issues.

“Soldier flies” swirling around a breeding chamber at a London-based start-up that’s producing insect protein powder as a substitute for meat and for other products.

Geothermal power plants (In Island volcanos) use heat from deep inside the Earth to generate steam, which spins turbines for electricity production. Once the steam cools off, the remaining water is pumped back into the Earth to begin the process again.

“Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames.” @GretaThunberg on climate change

What can you expect with frequent pre-emptive wars around the globe? USA with the denser numbers of psychopaths in the world

The arc of “universal moral” bends toward Justice

The index of innovative economy analyzes dozens of criteria using 7 metrics, including research and development spending, manufacturing capability and concentration of high-tech public companies. Germany is first followed by South Korea. USA #9

UK University student fees tripled since 2010. UK Labour MP Zarah Sultana, 26 said “Can universities minister Chris Skidmore look me in the eye and tell me that it is fair that working class kids who want an education are forced to take on this colossal debt, while his government is led by a man who went from the playing fields of Eton to a free education at Oxford?”. Sultana was 17 when the law changed, meaning she is now in around £50,000 worth of debt, with £2,022 interest added in the last year alone.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Alice Walker

Beach and riverbed sand miners in Vietnam can earn between $700 and $1,000 for every boatload of sand they scoop up. They often work in the evening, and without permits. ⁠(This is the only kinds of sand fit for construction)

White Helmet mercenaries harvested 15,000 organs from Syrians since their involvement in spreading fake news and videos.

Very funny. The UN awaits a response from Myanmar, following its ruling on Rohingya Muslims. The International Court of Justice today ordered the government to carry out emergency measures to protect Rohingya, and said there is evidence of breaches of the genocide convention.

 

Huge US university cancels subscription with Elsevier

The University of California system produces 10% of published research in the United States.
UC, which has 10 campuses across California, says that 18% of its researchers’ published studies are in Elsevier journals.
University of California system and Dutch publisher fail to strike deal that would allow researchers to publish under open-access terms.
Elsevier, headquartered in Amsterdam, publishes nearly 3,000 journals, which together issue more than 400,000 papers each year.

The University of California — the United States’s largest public university system — has cancelled its subscription with Dutch publishing giant Elsevier after months of negotiations over a proposed deal that would have allowed university researchers to publish in Elsevier journals under open-access terms.

The move is the latest in an escalating global row between scholarly publishers and academic institutions, which are pushing to make more of the scientific literature freely available and say that the costs of publishers’ subscriptions are becoming unreasonably expensive.

The University of California (UC) is the first US institution to have completely cancelled its subscription with Elsevier because of such negotiations.

“UC will embolden other institutions to take a hard line,” says Joseph Esposito, a senior partner at publishing consultancy Clarke & Esposito in Washington DC. “Some will be willing to walk away from deals.”

Esposito argues that pirate-paper site Sci-Hub has undermined the ability of some publishing firms to continue operating as they have before.

Tug of war

UC had been seeking to strike a ‘read-and-publish’ deal that would have allowed its researchers to read papers from the publisher, as well as to publish in Elsevier journals under open-access terms. Conventional licensing deals cover only the cost of accessing paywalled articles.

But the university — which publishes nearly 10% of US research papers — said on 28 February that it would not renew its contract, because Elsevier was demanding too high a price for the deal.

UC’s latest subscription with the publisher expired on 31 December, and researchers’ access to Elsevier journals had been extended while negotiations continued.

UC pays about $11 million a year to Elsevier in subscription fees, and the publisher wanted to increase the cost by about 80%, according to the institution’s calculations, said Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, co-chair of the UC negotiating team, in an interview with Berkeley News, a website maintained by the university.

In a statement to Nature’s news team, Elsevier called UC’s decision “disappointing”, and said that it had offered a model in which researchers could publish for free or open access and provided a path to reduce the costs for each UC campus.

In the past few years, stand-offs between academic publishers and institutes have increased in Europe, where a growing number of publishers have struck read-and-publish deals with university consortia.

Other US institutions, including Florida State University in Tallahassee, have cancelled major subscription deals with Elsevier over concerns about costs, but have continued to pay for access to a small subset of journals.

Researchers in European countries, including Sweden and Germany, have been without access to new papers in Elsevier journals for months, while national library consortia try to negotiate new deals.

‘Short-term pain’

Some UC researchers welcomed the institution’s decision.

“I’m ecstatic,” says Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, a plant geneticist at the University of California, Davis. “I think it was the right call.” He predicts “some confusion and short-term pain” as researchers determine how to access articles without a subscription.

Jay Keasling, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, has mixed feelings about the situation. A lot of students and scientists won’t have access to publications, he says. “On the other hand, Elsevier is a bit of a monopoly and I totally get where the university is coming from. I wish they could have gotten to some point of agreement.”

Keasling, co-editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Metabolic Engineering, worries that UC’s break from the publisher will affect the quality of Elsevier’s publications. “Will people quit reading the journals? Will people not want to publish on them?”

Despite the cancellation, UC academics will still have access to much of Elsevier’s back catalogue and will lose access only to articles published in Elsevier journals since the expiry of the institution’s licence, because of contract clauses that cover ‘post-termination access’.

Elsevier, headquartered in Amsterdam, publishes nearly 3,000 journals, which together issue more than 400,000 papers each year.

THE ANGRY ARAB: US Violated Unspoken Rule of Engagement with Iran

When did the USA administrations felt like speaking with the people in ME?

By As`ad AbuKhalil  
Special to Consortium News

Something big and unprecedented has happened in the Middle East after the assassination of one of Iran’s top commanders, Qasim Suleimani.

The U.S. has long assumed that assassinations of major figures in the Iranian “resistance-axis” in the Middle East would bring risk to the U.S. military-intelligence presence in the Middle East.

Western and Arab media reported that the U.S. had prevented Israel in the past from killing Suleimani.  But with the top commander’s death, the Trump administration seems to think a key barrier to U.S. military operations in the Middle East has been removed.

The U.S. and Israel had noticed that Hezbollah and Iran did not retaliate against previous assassinations by Israel (or the U.S.) that took place in Syria (of Imad Mughniyyah, Jihad Mughniyyah, Samir Quntar); or for other attacks on Palestinian and Lebanese commanders in Syria.

The U.S. thus assumed that this assassination would not bring repercussions or harm to U.S. interests.

Iranian reluctance to retaliate has only increased the willingness of Israel and the U.S. to violate the unspoken rules of engagement with Iran in the Arab East.

For many years Israel did perpetrate various assassinations against Iranian scientists and officers in Syria during the on-going war. But Israel and the U.S. avoided targeting leaders or commanders of Iran.

During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the U.S. and Iran collided directly and indirectly, but avoided engaging in assassinations for fear that this would unleash a series of tit-for-tat.

But the Trump administration has become known for not playing by the book, and for operating often according to the whims and impulses of President Donald Trump.

Different Level of Escalation

The decision to strike at Baghdad airport, however, was a different level of escalation.

In addition to killing Suleimani it also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a key leader of Hashd Forces in Iraq.

Like Suleimani, al-Muhandis was known for waging the long fight against ISIS. (Despite this, the U.S. media only give credit to the U.S. and its clients who barely lifted a finger in the fight against ISIS.)

On the surface of it, the strike was uncharacteristic of Trump.  Here is a man who pledged to pull the U.S. out of the Middle East turmoil — turmoil for which the U.S and Israel bear the primary responsibility.

And yet he seems willing to order a strike that will guarantee intensification of the conflict in the region, and even the deployment of more U.S. forces.

The first term of the Trump administration has revealed the extent to which the U.S. war empire is run by the military-intelligence apparatus. 

There is not much a president — even a popular president like Barack Obama in his second term — can do to change the course of empire.

It is not that Obama wanted to end U.S. wars in the region, but Trump has tried to retreat from Middle East conflicts and yet he has been unable due to pressures not only from the military-intelligence apparatus but also from their war advocates in the U.S. Congress and Western media, D.C. think tanks and the human-rights industry.

The pressures to preserve the war agenda is too powerful on a U.S. president for it to cease in the foreseeable future.  But Trump has managed to start fewer new wars than his predecessors — until this strike.

Trump’s Obama Obsession

Trump in his foreign policy is obsessed with the legacy and image of Obama.  He decided to violate the Iran nuclear agreement (which carried the weight of international law after its adoption by the UN Security Council) largely because he wanted to prove that he is tougher than Obama, and also because he wanted an international agreement that carries his imprint.

Just as Trump relishes putting his name on buildings, hotels, and casinos he wants to put his name on international agreements. His decision, to strike at a convoy carrying perhaps the second most important person in Iran was presumably attached to an intelligence assessment that calculated that Iran is too weakened and too fatigued to strike back directly at the U.S.

Iran faced difficult choices in response to the assassination of Suleimani.  On the one hand, Iran would appear weak and vulnerable if it did not retaliate and that would only invite more direct U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian targets.

On the other hand, the decision to respond in a large-scale attack on U.S. military or diplomatic targets in the Middle East would invite an immediate massive U.S. strike inside Iran.

Such an attack has been on the books; the U.S military (and Israel, of course) have been waiting for the right moment for the U.S. to destroy key strategic sites inside Iran.

Furthermore, there is no question that the cruel U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran have made life difficult for the Iranian people and have limited the choices of the government, and weakened its political legitimacy, especially in the face of vast Gulf-Western attempts to exploit internal dissent and divisions inside Iran. (Not that dissent inside Iran is not real, and not that repression by the regime is not real).

Nonetheless, if the Iranian regime were to open an all-out war against the U.S., this would certainly cause great harm and damage to U.S. and Israeli interests.

Iran Sending Messages

In the last year, however, Iran successfully sent messages to Gulf regimes (through attacks on oil shipping in the Gulf, for which Iran did not claim responsibility, nor did it take responsibility for the pin-point attack on ARAMCO oil installations) that any future conflict would not spare their territories.

That quickly reversed the policy orientations of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which suddenly became weary of confrontation with Iran, and both are now negotiating (openly and secretively) with the Iranian government.

Ironically, both the UAE and Saudi Kingdom regimes — which constituted a lobby for war against Iran in Western capitals — are also eager to distance themselves from U.S. military action against Iran.

And Kuwait quickly denied that the U.S. used its territory in the U.S. attack on Baghdad airport, while Qatar dispatched its foreign minister to Iran (officially to offer condolences over the death of Suleimani, but presumably also to distance itself and its territory from the U.S. attack).

The Iranian response was very measured and very specific.  It was purposefully intended to avoid causing U.S. casualties; it was intended more as a message of Iranian missile capabilities and their pin point accuracy. And that message was not lost on Israel.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, sent a more strident message. He basically implied that it would be left to Iran’s allies to engineer military responses. He also declared a war on the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, although he was at pains to stress that U.S. civilians are to be spared in any attack or retaliation.

Supporters of the Iran resistance axis have been quite angry in the wake of the assassination.  The status of Suleimani in his camp is similar to the status of Nasrallah, although Nasralla, due to his charisma and to his performance and the performance of his party in the July 2006 war, may have attained a higher status.

It would be easy for the Trump administration to ignite a Middle East war by provoking Iran once again, and wrongly assuming that there are no limits to Iranian caution and self-restraint.  But if the U.S. (and Israel with it or behind it) were to start a Middle East war, it will spread far wider and last far longer than the last war in Iraq, which the U.S. is yet to complete.

As’ad AbuKhalil is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of the “Historical Dictionary of Lebanon” (1998), “Bin Laden, Islam and America’s New War on Terrorism (2002), and “The Battle for Saudi Arabia” (2004). He tweets as @asadabukhal

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

Note 1: The US military base in Iraq, Ain Assad, was demolished by the Iranian missiles, and scores of US military personnel were injured and dispatched to Germany and Kuwait. The Netherland decided to vacate its soldiers from this base to Kuwait: They experienced the fright of a lifetime.

Note 2: Hezbollah of Lebanon delivered a final warning to Israel: Any assassination of its members anywhere around the world by Israel, Hezbollah will retaliate. And Hezbollah delivered on its promise and did retaliate on the assassination of 2 of its fighter in Damascus. Israel had vacated all its military bases in the Galilee and the civilians went into shelters for 3 days waiting for the attack.

Note 3: So far, Syrian regime avoided any clear declaration for retaliation on assassinations on its soil or the frequent Israel missiles destroying weapon depots in Syria.

A short history of Natural Syria

(Current Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and part of Iraq)

Natural Syria – Part 5

The Canaanites:

Who does not know the Story of the Alphabets, the greatest achievement in the History of Mankind? We owe it to the Canaanites. The Canaanites who inhabited the Shores of the Amoro Sea (The Mediterranean) extending from the Northern West Shores of Syria to the Southern Shores of what is Known in Modern History to be Palestine 3000 BC.

Their Presence by the Sea Side had oriented their development towards the Exploration of the Sea. Great People, who had left an incredible impact on the advancement of social Life throughout History.
The Canaanites who were named as the Phoenicians (mainly the City-States) of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Byblos…) by the Greeks were able to extend the Natural Life cycle of Natural Syria to Cyprus, dominating the Seas of the Amoro, and beyond.
Professional Traders with a superb Creative Mind, well talented with innovative Ideas such as ship Design and construction, documented communication, Art, Mythology and many more which we shall see in following posts.
The Canaanites established prominent City-Kingdoms that had a great impact on the Greek and Roman Empires, such as TyreByblosUgaritBeyrout (The present capital of the State of Lebanon), The Great Sun City (Baalbek) which started as a Canaanite shrine and developed later into a Big City Kingdom imposing itself on all Conquerors like Romans and Arabs and others.
Their Sea travels had planted the seeds of Civilization in more than one Continent, Africa (North and South), Europe (Named after a Canaanite Princess), and their archaeological traces lead to America which is believed that the Inca and Maya Civilization was born out of the Canaanite’s Ritual Womb.

The Arameians:

The Aramites were known to have appeared on the Scene of History as Nomads, Wondering in South central and western Syria between 1600 – 1500 BC. They maintained a low profile until the Amorite Empire Weakened around 1500 BC, where they started taking over Authority by playing the Natural Role of a new born Civilization.

Developing what they captured from existing ones embedding their Character in the new established production.
Their Major role and most effective one was the Aramite Language which became the Mother Tongue of almost every Language we use today. Their Language dominated Syria for a long time until the appearance of Jesus Christ, who communicated with people using Aramite.
It is also notable that the Arabic language, and likewise Hebrew and Latin were derived and developed from the Aramite Language.

The Amonites:

To the East of the Jordan River, The AmoniteMo’abAdoum and Median City Kingdoms’ Traces were found in addition to many others.

The Most Prominent city of their findings that survived different Natural and Political Changes is their Capital Rubbah – (Amman– The Capital of the Jordanian Kingdom today).
Extending back to 6000 BC, The Amonites built Stone Shrines and Monuments that still stand witness to their early Mythology, in the mountainous surroundings of Present Amman.

The Nabatians:

8000 BC, North of the Hejaz Region, (Arabia Desert), an Ethnic Group started their journey in the course of history as Nomads. Maintaining survival until 600 BC when they migrated towards North East of Sinai and east of the Jordan River. They were the Nabatians (ANBAT).

Their innovative and peaceful character can be observed through the Great cities they left as witness to such Nature. Their cities such as Athru’ – Jarash – Karak – Shobak – Eillat – Mada’en and others were scattered on a vast area extending from the South West to the South East of Natural Syria.
The Nabatians’ Capital was (Sala’) which was later called by the Greeks PETRA, meaning the Rock, and who doesn’t know the wonderfully carved city in the Rocky Mountains south Central of Syria.
Their Political state expanded to Reach the Bequaa’ Valley known as the Syrian Cavity due to the extension of fertile Planes between the Western and Eastern Mountain Series of Mount Lebanon.
The Nabatians, an additional Ethnic thread in the Syrian Nation Fabric.

At this point, a general and brief introduction to the Syrian Ethnic elements would have been delivered so far leading to a further phase in this series,

The Syrian Civilization Achievements.

The crimes of 1948: Jewish fighters speak out

“The most ferocious Jewish terrorists on Palestinian civilians were those who had escaped the Nazi camps”.

Note: re-edit of 2019 post

#Nakba: Thomas VescoviThursday 28 June 2018 13:08 UTC

More than 60 years after these events, the combatants express little remorse: the territory needed to be liberated to found the Jewish State and there was no room for “Arabs” (Meaning Palestinians)

For the Israelis, 1948 represents the high point of the Zionist project, a major chapter in the Israeli national narrative and succeeded in realising the utopia formulated 50 years earlier by Theodor Herzl – the construction, in Palestine, of a state of refuge for the “Jewish people”.

(This utopia was the concept of the USA “Christian” Evangelists, 50 years prior to Herzl ideology: They believed the Second Coming will take place only when the Jews occupy Jerusalem and Wilson supported this ideology)

For the Palestinians, 1948 symbolises the advent of the colonial process that dispossessed them of their land and their right to sovereignty – known as the “Nakba” (catastrophe, in Arabic).

In theory, Israeli and Palestinian populations disagree over the events of 1948 that drove 805,000 Palestinians into forced exile everywhere in the world with no hope for return to their Homeland.

However, in practice, Jewish fighters testified early on to the crimes of which they perhaps played accomplice, or even perpetrator.

Dissonant voices

Through various channels, a number of Israelis would testify to the events of the day, as early as 1948.

At the time of the conflict, a number of Zionist leaders questioned the movement’s authorities on the treatment of Arab populations in Palestine, which they considered unworthy of the values the Jewish fighters claimed to defend. Others took notes hoping to testify once the violence had stopped.

Yosef Nahmani, a senior officer of the Haganah, the armed force of the Jewish Agency that would become the Army of Defense for Israel, wrote in his diary on 6 November 1948:

“In Safsaf, after the Palestinian inhabitants had hoisted the white flag, [the soldiers] gathered the men and women into separate groups, bound the hands of fifty or sixty villagers, shot them, then buried them all in the same pit. They also raped several women from the village. Where did they learn such behaviour, as cruel as that of the Nazis? […] One officer told me that the most ferocious were those who had escaped the camps.”

The truth is, once the war was over, the narrative of the victors alone was heard, with Israeli civil society facing a number of far more urgent challenges than that of the plight of the Palestinian refugees. People who wanted to recount the events of the day had to turn to fiction and literature.

,In 1949, the Israeli writer and politician, Yizhar Smilansky published the novella Khirbet Khizeh, in which he described the expulsion of an eponymous Arab village.

But according to the author, there was no need to feel remorse about that particular chapter of history. The “dirty work” was as a necessary part of building the Jewish state. His testimony reflects, instead, a kind of atonement for past sins. By acknowledging wrongs and unveiling them, one is able to cast off the burden of guilt.

The novel became a bestseller and was made into a TV film in 1977. Its release provoked heated debate since it called into question the Israeli narrative claiming the Palestinian populations had left their lands voluntarily to avoid living alongside Jews.

Other works were published but few as realistic as Netiva Ben--Yehuda’s trilogy, The Palmach Trilogy, published in 1984, recounting the events of a three-month period in 1948.

A commander in the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah, she evokes the abuses and acts of violence perpetrated against Arab inhabitants and provides details of the massacre at Ein al Zeitun, which took place around 1 May 1948.

The Deir Yassin massacre

On 4 April 1972, Colonel Meir Pilavski, a former Palmach fighter, was interviewed by Yediot Aharonot, one of Israel’s three largest daily papers, on the Deir Yassin massacre of 9 April 1948, in which nearly 120 civilians lost their lives.

His troops, he claims, were in the vicinity at the time of the attacks, but were advised to withdraw when it became clear the operations were being led by the extremist paramilitary forces, Irgun and Stern, which had broken away from the Haganah.

From then on, the debate would focus on the events at Deir Yassin, to the point of forgetting the nearly 70 other massacres of Arab civilians that took place. The stakes were high for the Zionist left: responsibility for the massacres would be placed on groups of ultras.

The debate would focus on the events of Deir Yassin, to the point of forgetting the nearly 70 other massacres of Arab civilians that took place

In 1987, when the first works of a group of historians known as the Israeli “new historians” appeared, including those of Ilan Pappé, a considerable part of the Jewish battalions of 1948 were called into question. For those who had remained silent in recent decades, the time had come to speak out.

Part of Israeli society seemed ready to listen as well. Within the context of the First Palestinian Intifada and the pre-Oslo negotiations, pacifist circles were ready to question Israeli society on its national narrative and its relationship to non-Jewish communities.

These attempts at dialogue ended suddenly with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, which was more militarised and took place in the aftermath of the failed Camp David talks and the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Katz controversy would perfectly embody the new dynamic.

The Katz controversy

In 1985, a 60-year-old kibbutznik, Teddy Katz, decided to resume his studies and enrolled in a historical research programme under the direction of Ilan Pappé at the University of Haifa. He wanted to shed light on the events that took place in five Palestinian villages, deserted in 1948.

He conducted 135 interviews with Jewish fighters, 64 of which focused on the atrocity that allegedly took place in the village of Tantura, cleared of 1,200 inhabitants on 23 May 1948 by Palmach forces.

After two years of research, Katz states in his work that between 85 and 110 men were ruthlessly shot dead on Tantura beach, after digging their own graves. The massacre would then continue in the village, one house at a time, and a man-hunt was played out in the streets.

The killing only stopped when Jewish inhabitants from the neighbouring village of Zikhron Yaakov intervened. More than 230 people were murdered.

Ilan Pappé: “The Nakba, the observation of a crime, ignored but not forgotten

(Article to be continued)

New technologies and new critical sense of history is changing our understanding of religions

Le Judaïsme provient de textes sumero-babyloniens copiés et falsifiés

Publié par wikistrike.com sur 11 Mai 2014, 10:31am and re-posted by Andre Jazzar

Judaïsme et falsification : Les chercheurs et les scientifiques qui se sont dotés aujourd’hui d’une technologie plus adaptée, plus performante et d’un sens critique plus aigu, réécrivent petit à petit l’.

Ce sens critique fait enfin surface, celui qui avait disparu ou qui n’avait jamais existé afin d’empêcher les dogmes d’être remis en question pour éviter de briser les tabous et d’ensevelir les mensonges.

Les religions, les systémes dominateurs, le darwinisme et le créationnisme vivent leur dernières heures.

Même l’astronomie doit réinterpréter ses théories et ses conclusions.

Le XXI siècle sera une révolution des esprits de par la fin de ces dogmes qui ont anéanti la conscience de l‘humanité en faveur d‘une élite toujours identique ;

Si la politique et la finance remplacent les religions, ces dernières continuent malgré tout d’œuvrer dans l’inconscient, il est donc urgent d’instaurer une vraie démarche spirituelle.

52178_1401870970Ainsi les nouveaux exégètes, paléologues, paléographes, paléoanthropologues, mythographes, astrophysiciens, historiens et archéologues nous invitent, dans de nombreux ouvrages, en librairie, à reconsidérer nos connaissances imposées par l’orthodoxie régnante et à balayer ces trop nombreux sophismes qui nous ont fait nous égarer, nous éloigner de la vérité et qui ont permis tant d‘abus et d’injustices à l‘encontre des peuples.

Un travail impossible pour certains, car nous ne pouvons concevoir une autre réalité qu’en fonction de l’élargissement de notre propre conscience.

180px-Bm-epic-gaaDepuis plus de 120 ans des découvertes importantes ont été passées sous silence comme celles des Tablettes d’argile retrouvées dans l’ancienne Mésopotamie, Sumer, Ur, Ninive, Uruk, (les + anciennes écritures à ce jour) celles de Nag Hammadi en Egypte, celles du désert de Taklamakan en , au Pérou et au Mexique…

Et l’histoire incroyable des Dogons du Mali qui connaissaient déjà comme les Sumériens (3800 ans) toutes les planétes et leur composition, celle des Hopis d’Arizona et, bien d’autres, sur tous les continents.

Un silence coupable s’est abattu sur nos écrans et dans nos livres de peur que tous les enseignements acquis ne s’écroulent dans la conscience collective et qu’un séisme ravageur ne vienne détruire la vie de ceux qui ont mentis, qui continuent de nous mentir et de ceux qui se sont tout bêtement trompés.

Nous apprenons que l’histoire du Livre des Hébreux, le Tanakh, n’ est que la copie falsifiée de textes retrouvés en Mésopotamie, en Akkad, en Babylonie et en Egypte.

Des scribes sans scrupule (ils seraient quatre ou cinq sur plusieurs siècles) ont pioché dans l’Enuma Elish, l’épopée de Gilgamesh, celle d’Atrahasis, dans le Code d’Hammurabi, dans les croyances et les codex de l’ancienne Egypte pour se construire une identité et pour modifier à leur convenance les récits dits, mythographiques par certains, et évhéméristes par d’autres.

Ces scribes misogynes ont en premier lieu éradiqué le culte féminin pour l’ériger en un culte monothéiste, masculin, profondément phallocrate et dominateur.

Puis ils ont viré les nombreux dieux de Sumer, d’Akkad, de Babylonie et d‘Egypte ; même si la Genèse reste sans équivoque quand elle parle d’Elohim, désignant un pluriel et des Néphilims.

Il faut bien reconnaître que depuis les premières versions en araméen, en , les traductions de la Septante, celle de la Vulgate, celle de l’Historiale et les divers conciles qui ont fait de très nombreuses manipulations à l’avantage du clergé, et non pour celui des croyants, avec des retraits et  des ajouts successifs, il faut avouer que la  nous en fait perdre notre latin.

Le  reprendra à son compte plus tardivement les mêmes récits ; avec tout autant d‘ irrespect envers les femmes dans l’écriture d’évangiles, de lettres et d’épitres comme ceux de saint Augustin, saint Paul et par d’autres écrits comme ceux de Tertullien par exemple, pour ne citer qu‘eux.

Mais le livre apocryphe d’Enoch, aussi très violent, retiré du canon biblique car jugé dangereux par la théocratie, est clair. Les princes, les rois et les puissants (Clergé compris) doivent se faire du mouron pour s’être rendus coupables d’abus sur les faibles, en déshonorant et en ensanglantant la Terre et en bafouant le vrai .

La Justice sera rendue.

St Thomas : Le royaume de Dieu est en toi et tout autour de toi. Pas dans les édifices de bois et de pierre. Fend le morceau de bois et je suis là. Soulève la pierre et tu me trouveras.

Evangile apocryphe de la paix du disciple Jean qui honore la Mère au même titre que le Père ici

eve800px-Goatfishes_Louvre_Sb19

Le texte de la Création, celui du Déluge, ceux sur la Cosmogonie (Tiamat, Nibiru pour Sumer), l’Astronomie et la présence du ou des serpents évoquant une race reptilienne, de dieux venant du ciel se retrouvent dans des récits iden-tiques sur tous les continents (dans 244 cultures). Ils le sont sur le fond uniquement, car, sur la forme les noms sont diffèrents en fonction des civilisations et des pays.

Ces découvertes montrent également que des sociétés antédiluviennes ont permis de transmettre leurs savoirs aux homo-sapiens et que les dieux et les déesses n’étaient en fin de compte que des hommes et des femmes très évolués technologiquement et ayant des pouvoirs psychiques et cosmo-telluriques, perdus depuis.

Mais revenons à notre génie juif.

Comme la sauce n’était pas encore assez épaisse et indigeste pour le commun des mortel pour que celle-ci l’empoisonne, le clergé devait imposer une théocratie sans faille, une monarchie religieuse qui dominerait le peuple par une foi aveugle pour conquérir et s’installer dans un pays.

Le fondamentalisme, dans l’interprétation des textes, ne devait surtout pas être remis en question et, pour cela, la culpabilité et la peur devaient être les deux éléments fondamentaux, les deux piliers, les deux leviers par lesquels la domination allait s’exercer dans les esprits et par laquelle un obscurantisme allait s’abattre implacablement sur les peuples, pour y régner encore de nos jours.

imagesAfin que le peuple ne puisse se rebeller, s’émanciper et s‘interroger sur ses origines, il devait avoir peur et obéir aveuglément à un Dieu puissant, cruel à la main destructrice.

La Genèse est révélatrice sur ce sujet, elle est un texte plus qu’intéressant à étudier en tentant une lecture herméneutique des faits pour se rendre compte de la violence et de la cruauté de ce dieu, de certains de ses anges et de certains de ses fils.

TiamatUn dieu de l’Ancien Testament qui a usurpé les créations inscrites sur des tablettes d’argile antérieures de 2000 ans à Moïse, celle d’une grande déesse sumérienne en y ajoutant sa propre vision délétère de la relation au Divin qui, en fait, nous en éloigne dans les trois religions monothéistes de la réelle Source divine et de la Création.

Puis les dieux tels qu’An, Enki, Enlil et les déesses telles que la  très grande Nammu (mère primordiale de la Terre et du ciel ), Innana (Isis) et Ninhursag disparaitront pour donner naissance à ce dieu unique.

Et Atrahasis sera tout simplement remplacé par Noé, le Dilmun par l’Eden. Enki  lui mange les plantes défendues par la déesse Ninhursag et sera remplacé par Eve et Adam pour la faute originelle.

Le décalogue de Moïse et le Mosaïsme, puis le Judaïsme seront inspirés, non pas par Dieu, mais par le code Hammurabi Babylonien.

Difficile à admettre car nos esprits se heurtent et s’enferment dans des croyances millénaires et comment abolir une vérité, plutôt un sophisme, répété durant deux millénaires sans que sa propre dignité ne soit atteinte ?.

Pour que Galilée fasse admettre la sphéricité, l’héliocentrisme et non le géocentrisme de la Terre , beaucoup de sang a coulé , c’est vrai ; mais aujourd’hui personne ne risque de procès pour croire à un autre début, à une autre origine.

VPES000ZEn y introduisant un péché originel, incombant en premier à la femme, puis, à Adam, ensuite un enfer pour ceux qui ne respectaient pas la Loi, et une culpabilité de tous les instants avec une épée de Damoclès en permanence au dessus de nos têtes, pour ceux qui s‘éloignaient de ce dieu,

ces hébreux refoulés, ayant quand même quelques troubles de la personnalité, pour n’employer qu’un euphémisme, et leurs descendants, sont parvenus depuis presque 3000 ans pour les Juifs, 2000 ans pour les Chrétiens et 1400 ans pour les  à entretenir le mensonge pour conserver leur pouvoir sur les peuples.

Cet obscurantisme a privé les êtres humains de leur source Originelle divine et non simiesque, de leur libre-arbitre, de la quête du véritable Dieu ou Tout unifié et du chemin spirituel qui y mène.

Ces mensonges ataviques et millénaires sont encore aujourd’hui le sceau, la marque innée avec laquelle nous naissons. La faute originelle, qui n’a jamais existée, a conduit des centaines de générations à avoir peur, à vivre dans la peur des géhennes, à expier des péchés qui n’en étaient pas, et à faire mourir de trop nombreux croyants qui pensaient avoir offensé Dieu.

MoiseCet artéfact divin a conduit la plus grande partie de l’Humanité dans l’obscurité, à la perte de la Connaissance ou de la Lumière originelle, à la haine des autres, aux guerres sanglantes et destructrices, à la confiscation de la Vérité par quelques-uns, aux pillages et aux injustices les plus dures.

Il serait temps de rendre à César ce qui est à César.

Le génie du Judaïsme ne se résume donc qu’à un simple pillage et en une simple falsification d’anciens textes venant de Mésopotamie, et ce, pour s‘approprier le pouvoir et exiger par le sang une terre qui ne leur a jamais été promise par Dieu.

Pas très glorieux ni pour eux, ni pour les Chrétiens d‘ailleurs.

La Terre de Palestine appartient bien en premier aux descendants des indigènes, les vrais Sémites qu’ils soient aujourd’hui musulmans,  hébreux ou chrétiens, mais en aucun cas aux juifs venant pour l’ensemble de l’Europe ou des USA qui composent leur majorité.

Ces croyants ou ces athées nommés injustement, le Peuple élu de Dieu pour la Terre promise, est une des plus grandes hérésies qui perdure.

D’ailleurs le concept de Terre promise est bien antérieur au judaïsme puisqu’il émane de l’Inde et plus précisément de l’Himalaya et des prêtres Naacal. Ce qui n’a rien à voir avec les Sémites.

La Terre promise appartient à tous et est partout, et aucun dieu ne peut décider de choisir une poignée de croyants, sauf si il est totalement humain et profondément injuste et calculateur, pour lui offrir le bien d’autrui.

La paix est donc possible. Que la Vérité se fasse.


Certaines erreurs ou mensonges source : http://sites.google.com/site/

:
11:6 « Vous ne mangerez pas le lièvre, qui rumine, mais qui n’a pas la corne fendue » V’la que le lièvre est un ruminant

Deutéronome:

20:16 « Mais dans les villes de ces peuples dont l’Éternel, ton Dieu, te donne le pays pour héritage, tu ne laisseras la vie à rien de ce qui respire. » Étrange Dieu qui commande d’exterminer les hommes, les femmes et les enfants…

34:5 La mise en terre de Moïse. Sachant que c’est lui qui est censé avoir écrit ce récit, ça pose un problème sémantique…

Josué:
6:5 Les murailles de Jéricho, dont les murailles d’enceinte se seraient écroulées au son des trompettes de guerre, A l’époque citée par la Bible, Jéricho n’était pas encore fortifiée!

1 Samuel:
28 Inspiré du poème sumérien où l’on voit l’ombre d’Enkidu sortir du Kur et se jeter dans les bras de Gilgamesh.

Cantique des cantiques:
Une suite empruntée au chant sumérien du mariage sacré: même style, même thèmes, détails, vocabulaire, mêmes personnages, monologues, dialogues, même langage fleuri et redondant. Voir par exemple le chant d’amour de Shu-Sin au chapitre XXI. Shu-Sin qui ressemble fort au roi Salomon dont l’existence n’est pas certaine et, s’il a existé, son règne n’a rien à voir avec celui décrit dans la Bible.

1 Rois:
1:34 Les remparts de Jérusalem sous le roi Salomon: à cette époque là, Jérusalem, un modeste village, n’était pas fortifié

2 Rois:
3:19 « vous frapperez toutes les villes fortes et toutes les villes d’élite, vous abattrez tous les bons arbres, vous boucherez toutes les sources d’eau, et vous ruinerez avec des pierres tous les meilleurs champs. » Quel est ce Dieu qui ordonne de semer la désolation?

Esther:
L’Esther du livre d’Esther vient de la déesse Babylonienne Ishtar. Mardochée est le dieu Assyrien Mardukéa.

Le livre de Job:
Le thème de Job découle directement des tablettes sumérienne de Nipur. Il utilise les termes même du « poème de la Création » qui décrit le combat de Mardouk contre Kingou: Yahvé brise le crâne de Léviathan comme Mardouk celui de Tiamat.

Isaïe:
2:4 « Il sera le juge des nations, L’arbitre d’un grand nombre de peuples. De leurs glaives ils forgeront des hoyaux, Et de leurs lances des serpes: Une nation ne tirera plus l’épée contre une autre, Et l’on n’apprendra plus la guerre. » Des milliers d’années plus tard, toujours des guerres (dont beaucoup sont des guerre de religions): encore une prédiction ratée…

7:14 Une des nombreuses falsifications de la Bible de Jérusalem: pour augmenter le nombre de prophéties réalisées: »la jeune femme » a été remplacée par « la vierge ». Ce qui montre au passage que l’évangile de Matthieu a été rédigé très tardivement, par un non-juif qui n’avait pas accès aux textes hébreux.

9:11: largement inspiré du texte sumérien qui décrit la descente aux enfers du monarque Ur-Nammu qui arrive dans le Kur.

11:6-9 « Le loup habitera avec l’agneau, Et la panthère se couchera avec le chevreau; Le veau, le lionceau, et le bétail qu’on engraisse, seront ensemble, Et un petit enfant les conduira. La vache et l’ourse auront un même pâturage, Leurs petits un même gîte; Et le lion, comme le bœuf, mangera de la paille. Le nourrisson s’ébattra sur l’antre de la vipère, Et l’enfant sevré mettra sa main dans la caverne du basilic. Il ne se fera ni tort ni dommage Sur toute ma montagne sainte; car la terre sera remplie de la connaissance de l’Éternel, comme le fond de la mer par les eaux qui le couvrent. ». A peu près 3000 ans plus tard, toujours rien…

24:1 « La face de la Terre » ici, la Bible nous dit clairement que la Terre est plate….

Jérémie:
31:34 « Celui-ci n’enseignera plus son prochain, Ni celui-là son frère, en disant: Connaissez l’Éternel! Car tous me connaîtront, Depuis le plus petit jusqu’au plus grand, dit l’Éternel; Car je pardonnerai leur iniquité, Et je ne me souviendrai plus de leur péché. » Toujours rien.

48:10: L’Éternel tend un piège à David. Forcément, David tombe dedans et il est puni: L’Éternel est content: il a couillonné un mortel!

49:36 « Les quatre coins de l’horizon » ici aussi, la Bible nous dit clairement que la Terre est plate….

Lamentations de Jérémie:
Ces lamentations sont reprises de « La lamentation sur la destruction de Nippur », récit sumérien.

4:20 « Le souffle de nos narines, l’oint du seigneur a été pris dans leurs fosses, lui dont nous disions: A son ombre, nous vivons parmi les nations » directement inspiré du pharaon Ramsés II : « Toi qui est le souffle de nos narines ».. »faucon qui protège ses sujets de ses ailes et répand l’ombre sur eux »

Ézéchiel:
Inspiré de la déesse babylonienne Ishtar. Les sumériens l’adoraient sous le nom d’Innana, épouse de Dumuzi, le Tammouz de la Bible.

http://www.diatala.org/pages/Le_Judaisme_provient_de_textes_sumeriens_falsifies-2588066.html

Tidbits #2

Raising children by valuing play and education over work, turned children into consumers in their own right.  And Advertisers took notice, before TV invention.

Frankly, I feel lucky that I lived long enough in this century to realize that books of females authors are far more interesting than their gender’s counterparts

Elon Musk’s firm intentionally destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket in a test to show how it would keep astronauts safe in a failed mission. SpaceX’s first crewed flight test could take place as soon as March.

Single-use plastics: Plastic bags will be banned in big cities, and plastic straws will be forbidden in restaurants, both by the end of this year. The prohibition will expand to all Chinese cities over the next two years.

Inequality is a public health issue: Just look at the link between the minimum wage and the suicide epidemic in the US.

Nitrogen oxide, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide, is emitted everywhere something is burning. That usually means humans are at work

GM sold around 20 times as many cars as Tesla in 2019, while Ford sold more than six times as many. But it’s Tesla that is now by far the most valuable car company in America. Does it have to do with China market and the electric cars?

By 2050 Europe will have one person over 65 for every two of working age. Spain and Italy are expected to lose more than a quarter of their workforce. ⁠

50% of European Union citizens identify climate change as one of the three biggest challenges facing their country right now, ahead of access to healthcare and unemployment.

About 1.1m school pupils live in New York City. They are mostly non-white, and attend some of the most segregated schools in the country.⁠

“Wild dogs” do share a common ancestor with wolves and they might be renamed “painted wolves” for their coat markings. This species is endangered

A new lithium-ion battery is invincible: It can work despite being cut, bent, soaked, shot, and lit on fire.

Florida has no income tax or estate tax, letting some homeowners potentially shave tens of thousands from their tax bills. Over 600,000 US citizens flock in from other States each year.

Thailand’s annual road-death rate is almost double the global average and more than seven times the rate in nearby Singapore, a wealthy financial hub.⁠ The problem is acute in poor countries. Deaths are thought to have risen by 40% since 1990 in countries that the World Bank defines as low-income, such as Afghanistan and Malawi.⁠ road-death is more than the combined deaths in malaria and Aids…

The theme of this year’s jamboree in Davos is “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” The impulse to cohere with fellow humans will be tested by slow-moving security lines, a strict badge hierarchy, and arbitrary event guest lists, but the intention is admirable

In Davos 2020, everything revolves around the roughly 2,800 official delegates and their entourages.  At the top of the Davos hierarchy, there are 53 heads of state or governments attending the forum, roughly the same as last year.

In geopolitical power—there are only three leaders of G7 countries, and none from the BRICS and 119 billionaires. 

Again, What’s the purpose of companies? Of the six thematic tracks that guide the Davos official forum program, the most sessions are devoted to “Society” (89) and the least to “Economy” (27).

Aside from public letters and speeches of CEO for concern to climate change priority, in its latest global survey of CEOs, PwC found that climate change did not even make it into the top 10 threats the executives see to growth prospects.

China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus. 

About 60% of Americans play video games and a third globally. And as the global gaming industry grows, it’s influencing much more than how we spend our free time.

Sperm donations from dead men should be allowed: no differently than organ donation.

A survey of 34,000 people in 28 countries found that no institution is considered both ethical and competent.

More than 50% of young adults surveyed by the Red Cross think a nuclear attack will happen in the next 10 years.

Can we say the Lebanese is a “people”? And who this mass upheaval represents?

Est-il un “peuple” ce Libanais
Bernard Gerbaka posted on FB. Yesterday at 12:01 AM

Thawra?… Thawra!

Un peuple qui occupe les places, qui pause pour les fêtes… promenade et corvée…

Un peuple qui remplit les rues, les cafés, les salons et les salles de presse. …

Un peuple qui se chicane, qui «en a marre», «a faim», «en a assez» de ses gouvernants…

Un peuple  qui generalise et dit “kellon“, (all of them)

Un peuple qui fait la queue devant les guichets automatiques, qui attend son tour durant des heures au comptoir des banques pour quémander son propre argent qu’on lui verse comme une aumône, au compte-goutte hebdomadaire,

Un peuple qui subit les politiques vexatoires de la Banque Centrale, de l’Association des Banques, des échangeurs avides et des usuriers,

Un peuple qui, de peine et de misère, force la démission du gouvernement et qui assiste, depuis plus de trois mois, aux mêmes tractations et querelles de portefeuilles pour la formation d’un nouveau gouvernement,, qui n’acceptera pas une réplique des précédents, mais uniquement un gouvernement de technocrates indépendants tel que réclamé, à cor et à cri, par les «révolutionnaires»…

Un peuple qui ne laisse passer ni les scandales financiers ni les milliards de dollars «évadés» ni les opérations frauduleuses aux administrations, ni les maltraitances et trafics d’enfants, ni les altercations tonitruantes avec la justice, ni les désastres écologiques, ni les négligences sanitaires, ni les vexations éducatives, ni les destructions des lieux de vie, ni les occupations réfugionnistes, ni les discriminations, ni les révélations fracassantes des ministres s’accusant mutuellement dans le registre “responsable mais pas coupable”…

Un peuple qui ne laisse pas les cas de corruption et de violation des droits de l’homme, de la femme et de l’enfant se tasser ou se volatiliser…

Un peuple qui est conscient du noyautage confessionnel, et qui n’exclut personne des «kellon»,

Un peuple qui manifeste devant un restaurant pour expulser des affameurs et qui remplit de vie les restaurants et les places, qui déclenche la «révolte des affamés»,

Un peuple qui enrage et qui chantonne à toutes les têtes de turc, son Hela Hela Ho ou autres tirades – selon préférences – qui refuse la machine à pétrir gouvernementale et la galette ministérielle,

Un peuple qui apprend et enseigne, à partir des mouvements et mouvances, révoltes et révolutions, guerres et conflits armés, de Turquie, Tunisie, Palestine, Jordanie, Bahrein, Libye, Yémen, Égypte, Soudan, Algérie, Irak, Syrie, Iran… et qui tente, dans son désespoir et son immense espérance, à mieux faire, plus pacifique, moins violent, plus durable, plus curable…

Une Thawra de femmes et hommes, jeunes et âgés, enfants et porteurs de handicaps, compte sur sa diversité pour lui dessiner des ailes, lui imprimer son caractère et sa personnalité, son innocence et sa maturité, sa paix et ses sursauts, sa résistance et sa résilience, sa souplesse et son endurance, sa détermination pacifique et ses appontages spirituels.
«Thawra» endure, avec ses maux et ses morts, ainsi que les grands sacrifices que ce peuple subit… économiques et financiers, sanitaires et environnementaux, sociaux et éducatifs, … et qui puise résistance et résilience dans ses propres ressources, ..

Un peuple fier et généreux, un peuple aimable et affable, un peuple superficiel dans son quotidien et profond dans ses racines, un peuple vivace et libre,

 

Ce peuple ne mourra pas, et sa révolution aboutira…et le mot «Thawra» gravé sur un poing géant, est à la mesure de ce peuple, qui a englobé puis transformé en vestiges toutes les occupations, depuis l’ottomane (qui a débuté avant la découverte de l’amérique), jusqu’à la syrienne…

Ce peuple, désuni par les intérêts et les manipulations, est réuni par la faim et la faillite…il lui reste à faire son deuil (sur son passé sanglant) qu’il n’a jamais fait depuis 1975, pour finalement se retrouver en une nation et non en 2 négations, un peuple capable de bâtir sa société, notre société, née de notre Thawra!

La Thawra est permanente, avec le sourire et les larmes, dans la bonne humeur et la tristesse, dans l’humour et les cris, les caricatures et sarcasmes, sur les places et les réseaux sociaux, rendant risibles et pitoyables les dirigeants. Le peuple investit cette «Thawra», fait campagne, réveille les inconscients, montre l’apathie des dirigeants, leur débouche les oreilles, appelle à la grève, dessille les yeux des aveuglés à leur propre condition…

Au rythme où elle va, Thawra ! Thawra ! garde sa forme exclamative!
Comme le feu, elle enflamme et brûle, comme l’eau, elle irrigue et noie, comme la terre, elle enterre et fleurit, come l’air, elle inspire et balaie !

Thawra est diverse et omniprésente, elle est inattendue et inclusive… elle n’a pas de locomotive mais elle a une âme, celle de nos enfants!

Note: We can go on for ever on “Un people et ce people” but Nothing has materialized and proved that we are Un peuple. Since our mock independence in 1943, the Lebanese didn’t demonstrate any zeal in changing its sectarian and comprador system.

 

Tidbits #1

in the modern age, there can be serious consequences to multitasking. Texting while driving can incapacitate drivers as much as alcohol. Even phone calls can pose a dangerous distraction. Most of us overestimate our multitasking ability, and people who multitask more often are generally worse at it.

Taking on the powerful climate deniers in Australia and USA who have the government in their grip. Right now, they’re flooding Australia with fake news to play down the link to climate change, but as deadly fires blaze through homes, businesses and schools, killing dozens and wrecking people’s lives, Australia’s leaders are under pressure like never before.

Racing cars regulations: New F1 regulations coming in 2021 aim to level the playing field, with new cars, reduced wind tunnel runs, and a $175 million spend cap per team for the season, but there are many loopholes and exemptions from the budget cap that might still put an elite few teams on top.

In 2017, Liberty Media purchases the Formula One franchise and commercial rights for $8 billion,

F1 cars reach top speeds of 230 mph and  can still burn up to 110 kg (243 lb) of fuel during a race, while FE (electric0 cars top out at 140 mph.

About time: rapidly changing accounting industry?  And forcing separation of auditing, accounting and counseling. The Big Four accounting firms now get the majority of their revenue from consulting, not their core auditing businesses. But can an auditor remain independent when it’s competing for lucrative consulting contracts?

The writings of Nietzsche and Seneca teach us about what we can and can’t control.

Lisa Frank began making art at age five. Born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan—one of the wealthiest towns in the US—she ”was totally a girly girl…. I loved to read, I loved to do artwork, I loved to do anything girly.

Sparkle sells: As a teen, Lisa Frank sold her artwork to Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler. She took her distinct vision to the University of Arizona (Frank was an abstract artist, but her colors were just as vibrant as her better-known unicorn folders), where she bought handmade jewelry and pottery from Native Americans, then sold them at a markup back home.

Nitrous oxide is nearly 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.

How can we preserve smells?  Olfactory archivists say they’re an important part of our cultural heritage.

Our attention wavers to take stock of our surroundings 4 times a second, likely as an adaptation that allows us to focus while also remaining aware of potential threats and opportunities. More often than not, we are actually task switching than multitasking,

In just over two decades, China has become Africa’s largest trade partner, its largest infrastructure funder, and its fastest-growing source of foreign direct investment.

At least a unanimous concession: “The research is almost unanimous, which is very rare in social science, and it says that people who chronically multitask show an enormous range of deficits. They’re basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks, including multitasking.”Clifford Nass,

The term Multitasking has been around since 1970 and I never believed in it: probably we can do a routine physical task with a low level mental task, but we are basically switch among tasks that do Not need focusing and total attention.

“Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.” MARTIN GILENS AND BENJAMIN PAGE,

On average, children ask 9 times for a given item before parents typically give in, according to Kid Food by Bettina Elias Siegel

The US Treasury resorted to 20-year bonds. 50- or 100-year bonds were also considered by officials, as the government tries to reduce deficits that are expected to eclipse the $1 trillion mark each year this decade. The new bond will be available within six months.

The fintech startup Plaid seamlessly connects your bank account to hot payment apps like Venmo and Square’s Cash App and just one year ago was valued at $2.65 billion.

Nike’s Vaporfly shoes are too fast. They may be banned from competition because runners are breaking so many records.

In Lebanon, on est garcon ou fille. Des codes differents regissent les deux genres. Les termes “garcon manque'” ou “fille manquee'” n’existent pas pour devenir cliche’.

Don’t cry for us Argentina: Financial Situation in Lebanon

I’m trying to understand the mess we’re currently in and I have a rough sketch of a story.

As I understand it, when the WhatsApp revolt sparked, Lebanon was already entangled in a twin-deficit problem: budget and foreign, with significant current account imbalance and dwindling foreign reserves.

Before the 17th of October, banks were already pushing for the conversion of loans in local currencies into US denominated loans:  they were restricting capital outflows and enticing new deposits in US dollars at abnormally high interest rates

At the same time, bank insiders were transferring their funds abroad and removing their cash in dollars from the banks.

When the protests erupted on October 17, banks suddenly closed for two weeks without good reason, triggering when they reopened a generalized bank run.

As a result, banks froze all accounts, suspended the convertibility of bank deposits and imposed an extensive and arbitrary capital control.

These measures led to the creation of two types of dollars: one, inside the banking system, being tied to the Lebanese Lira at a rate of one dollar equal to 1515 Lebanese Lira while the other, outside the banking system, floating and averaging today 2500 Lebanese Lira.

The discount value of inconvertible deposits is the cost depositors are willing to incur to get their money out of the banking system, in light of the impeding risks and the political ineptness and ranges now from 25% to 50%.

In his latest rigged TV interview, the governor of the BDL (Riad Salami) opened the door for the “Lirafication” of bank deposits, measure that will be plausibly followed by the devaluation of the lira.

The post-devaluation exchange rate will depend on the ability of the BDL to defend the local currency at a new level of exchange, i.e., the assessment of the amount of net foreign reserve it holds.

Such an exercise is close to an Enron-style audit with fake holdings, hidden losses and off-the-book accounting.

As the country descends irrevocably into anarchy, Lebanon seems to be abandoned by the international community and the economy is grounded to a virtual halt, a shut down, which led to the breakdown of the system.

This breakdown has been a slow-motion collapse that marched for exactly 29 years, inexorably towards its current catastrophic demise.

The date of its symbolic death goes back to October 13, 2019, when wildfire broke out across Lebanon.

At the cornerstone of the Lebanese economy, was its currency system, known as the “convertibility” policy, which kept the value of one dollar fixed equal to about 1507 lira and allowed Lebanese to use both currencies interchangeably.

It was the basis of a system of legalized corruption for so long and is partly responsible of the impressive meltdown.

In 2001, Argentina defaulted on its public debt while Lebanon was saved by the international community during the Conference of Paris I.

We should have learned at that time lessons from the Argentina experience, but unfortunately, we didn’t.


adonis49

adonis49

adonis49

January 2020
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